But the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), which sent the alert — and one warning of an 8.2 magnitude earthquake in New Zealand — has said there’s no cause for panic.
The BoM has confirmed the alerts received on its weather app were a test.
While a post on X warned the public ahead of time about the alerts, the BoM has since apologised for any confusion the test may have caused.
The test alerts were part of the BoM’s transition to new software used as part of the tsunami early warning system.
The warnings were sent out for various locations and were cancelled immediately after they were issued.
The BoM is part of the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre (JATWC), which operates 24 hours a day to detect, monitor, verify and warn of any tsunami threats to the coastline of Australia and its offshore territories.